Kitchen King

Today was a special day for me. For the first time since my return from UK, i took over the kitchen. Thanks to my parents, they had gone for some marriage in the morning. They gave an option for us to either go to a hotel or cook ourselves. I preferred the latter, as it was too cumbersome to go out for lunch as it was sunny. The deal was - I'll cook and my bro will wash the utensils later. Took a good 1.5 hours for cooking 2 dishes - rice & sambhar. First cut carrot and beans which took 1/2 an hr. Then cooked them along with dal & rice in separate containers. Then added all other ingredients - salt, sambhar powder, tamarind water, chilli powder, tadka etc. It turned out to be good infact! Check this out -

Well appreciated by parents when they had it for dinner. London has thought me a lot :)

Goa Trip - Day 4

Our last day in Goa started off on a good note, with first settling the bill amount and then going to Vasco. Oh ya, I'd forgotten to write about this - as soon as we landed in Panaji the first day, we got return tickets booked to Bangalore through Paulo travels, Ac bus. I'll come back to it later anyways. And also we had the train tickets booked, but it was still in waiting list. So had to cancel it before we incur any further losses.

It was a 1.5 hour drive to Vasco from Calangut and me and Bond waited in the que to cancel the tickets, while NCK and Kirthi went around shopping for cashews, as we were told that cashews here were cheap (hell it was cheap!). We next had a glimpse of Vasco port and still were thinking where to go next as we had nearly 3 hours to return the car. It was there we had the group photo sessions - drivers (Bond & Kirthi), navigator(myself) and antakshari winner(NCK) ;) (The favourite letter to end a song was with 'L')

We then relooked of going to the missed out Aguada fort, and came back to the fort after another hour drive. The tower and the place where the trio of DCH sat were thoroughly shooted. We spent around an hour there and came back to Panaji and returned the car at 430 PM.

Then we had light snacks at a nearby restaurant and proceeded to catch our bus back to Bangalore which was at 6. The very first look of the bus made me skeptical as to we will reach Bangalore or not! It was AC/Non-AC bus, with the first half being AC, a door in the middle and the rear half being non AC. Phew! At least we thought we were in a better position as we had a sleeper in Ac. When asked the driver as to where would he stop for breaks, he told - dinner at Karwar, breakfast at Sira. ??!!?? What ?? A stop for breakfast! We really had not thought of bunking office on Monday. Well, anyways, as the bus started, (at 7), within half an hour, the AC and the lights were turned off. We were happily playing cards, and then had to switch to 20 questions. The crew of the bus was horrible and they were not accepting any requests to turn on the AC. What crap! And, they stopped for dinner at 10 at a dirty hotel in Karwar. My goodness, the return journey was horrible. We continued our game till 1 and then slept off.

Next day morning, I woke up only at Sira for breakfast. Sure, I had to bunk office. Thought of taking a snap of the bus and publishing it-

Well, reached home at 12ish, had lunch and slept off again. Overall, it was an amazing trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The next time I go to Goa, I'll ensure that I take along a female with me ;) Goa surely rox !

And people, anyone thinking of Paulo travels..? Give it a second thought!

Goa Trip - Day 3

After a real good sleep, we woke up on the saturday morning at 9ish and went for breakfast at 935. But it turned out to be a mess, with the breakfast getting closed at 930 only. This resulted with an argument with the manager and then he succumbed to pressure and finally agreed to provide the breakfast specially done for the four of us. Good hospitality :)

Enough of the beaches, we enquired about any waterfalls nearby with the manager. He suggested one Harvalem water falls, which was around an hour journey. We left for that place taking directions which were in the map and enquiring at many places, since the route to that falls was not that clearly mentioned. On our way, we saw a signboard showing DoodhSagar falls, and for a moment we thought we will ditch Harvalem and go to DoodhSagar. But since the latter was further an hours journey from a place nearby Ponda, we decided to go to Harvalem only and later go to DoodhSagar. We reached Harvalem at around 130 PM, where there was a temple(dint go) and a small waterfall, which was around max 50ft. But, this place wasn't that crowded at all, and we could peacefully take photos to put in our orkut profiles.

We left that place in half an hour and thought of going to DoodhSagar. But, as we drove, DS appeared to be not reachable only. We had our lunch at 4PM near Ponda at a Udupi restaurant - that was the best lunch we had in goa. Then, after a brief discussion, we thought of going to Colva beach, as we had got reviews from many friends that this was the best beach in goa and not to be missed. We reached Colva beach at around 530PM where a huge lot of people had gathered. It was totally packed and there was little watersports. The beach also wasn't all that clean, still I was wondering what was there in Colva ! We then had to drop the idea of getting wet.

So what next? Where do we go next? This was haunting all our minds. I suggested we go back to Baga, have a couple of drinks on the last night in Goa and doze off. But the other three were not in unison, and all were vouching for Palolem beach, which was in the extreme south of Goa. I knew this would take much of the time in driving and the evening would be wasted, but people didn't agree and we drove to Palolem beach. Me full modd off :(

We reaced Palolem beach at around 8PM and nothing much was there to do. As NCK was telling, there were a lot of foreigners who were busy in the shacks having beer, but what for us! Ya, could have done something if we had reached early, but no point at 8. We just walked thru the shore like lone wanderers for sometime and came back to our car and started towards Calangut. A good 2 hour journey. An evening wasted. Bad planning.

Back in my room, I ordered a port wine and hit the bed.

Goa Trip - Day 2

The sun was already on top of our head when we woke up at 'Estrella Do Mar' beach resort at 9. After having our breakfast, a lousy upma, omlet, pakoda & bread, first went to Calangut beach. It was just a 5 min walk from our resort. There we had a good time in the beach (what can 4 guys do!) just trying to stand steady amidst the rising waves, in vain though. We had initially thought of spending the whole morning at Calangut beach, but got bored eventually after sometime. There were ya, couple of 'ongoers' and 'onlookers', but we could reach them hardly ;)

We came back to resort, took the car and thought of finishing off all beaches that day. First we went to Anjuna beach, the idea given to us by a candyman at Calangut beach where he said its 'worth' going there to watch. Thanks to him, it was a family beach alltogether.

Disappointed, we then headed towards Dona Paula, the idea this time was given by one of Bond's friends. It took us an hour from Anjuna to Dona Paula, only to find a small hill kind of thing from where some scenic views could be seen. There was a hand held telescope guy who showed me Vasco port, Governors bungalow, Taj hotel and 2 more places for Rs. 5/-. It was a good place again, but couldn't stay long there. Packed off.

On our way thinking where to go next, in the map we could see another beach - Miramar. So decided to go there hoping to enjoy. Ya, by the time we reached there it was 3ish and we had pav bhaji, ice tea etc to fill our stomach anticipating good fun in the beach. As we walked on the hot sand,phew!A signboard reading - 'Donot step in. Its dangerous here' :( Well, though there were people who had stepped in till below knee level, we found it not interesting again, as it was filled only with kids & their parents. Hence decided to go to some other beach.

It was still hot and the moment I saw parasailing at Sinquerim, always wanted to get its thrill. So, I suggested that we finish off water sports that day, and we came back to Sinquerim. Again the same agents approached us, quoting the same rates, But this time, we got thought we will get some more 'discount', and booked an agent for Rs. 550 per head for 3 rides - jetskie, banana ride & parasailing. A whooping 1500 bucks per head saved, cos we were still students :) (When asked a couple sometime later, they told they paid 1200 only for parasailing!)

First me and Bond got into the jetskie, wearing a local life jacket. The experience was too good, even though I didn't had the contol of the scooter. Deep into the sea, zig zag movement against the waves, bumping.. all got over within 5 mins. Just too good to take! DCH truely inspired us :)

Next, we went for the banana ride. NCK had been telling that the boat will capsize deep in the sea and to be careful and I was eagerly looking forward to that moment. Bond, though was initially not very much interested in getting into the boat, made a brave effort of joining us later. The banana was bloated, we sat on it and a motor boat was attached to the banana. It was all good till we were holding the boat firmly and it was going straight. When we reached quite a distance from the shore, the boat took a turn. Within no time me and Kirthi were under water still holding the boat, but the other two were missing ! Bond was screaming like hell a little distance away and NCK looked really scared, though not screaming. It took quite an effort for me and Kirthi to get these guys back on boat. But for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it! In the middle of the sea, under no control! Just an amazing life time experience. We then somehow managed to get back to the shore. The life jacket did its job. I really wanted some pics in the middle of the sea, but in vain. This memory will last for good.

Not able to withstand anymore, Bond opted out of parasailing. We 3 chucked hurriedly into a boat, as there was another big gang waiting for parasailing. There we changed to another boat which was meant exclusively for parasailing. First NCK and Kirthi parasailed. Next turn, I was alone. It was a very good feeling being in the air, in the sea, at a good height, watching the sunset. All I wanted to do in goa was 80% complete. Another life time experience. Nothing better than this!

We returned to the resort after all water sports, had a good bath and set out for dinner at 9ish. We could find only a couple of hotels open at that time and barged into one 'Garam Masala' hotel. There only 2 people were working for a crowd of around 12 people. Spent nearly 2 hours for getting our dinner ready, and came back to resort and crashed to bed.

Goa Trip - Day 1

After a long wait for getting the leave approved for May 2nd by my manager, convincing peple that the regular work will not be affected that day, I left for Goa with my Eng friends without caring about the project status on 30th Apr. Finally. The place where every bachelor who has watched DCH wishes to go.

We landed at Panaji at around 8ish by the well driven KSRTC volvo, playing cards thru out the night. Oh, btw, We = Me, Bond(another Karthik), Kirthi and NCK(Chandrakanth). We were all hostel mates at SIT. Ya, going further, we booked a WagonR for ourselves from a self proclaimed dealer for 3 days. We straight went to Calangut where NCK(thru outsourcing) had booked a beach resort for one day initially, which got extended till our stay in goa.

After freshing up, we first thought of finishing off all the religious places before we start our purpose of being in goa ;) So first went to St Xaviers Bascillica (also known as Bom Jesus) which is in Old Goa. I remember seeing this when I was a kid. Fortunately, it was open and not crowded as expected. Here, the body of St Xavier can be seen.

After this, we had some juices and drinks to wipe off our thirst and marched towards Mangueshi temple. Needless to say, tender coconuts, fresh lime sodas and other juices were our best drinks in the sun all the 4 days. We reached the temple, had darshan of Lord Shiva and were thinking of where to go next.

The first thing that came to mind was Aguada fort, where DCH shooting had taken place. So, we moved up again towards the fort, only to see that the gates of the fort were being closed at 5ish. Well, luckily there was a beach nearby - Sinquerim beach and we decided to have a first look of a Goan beach. This was quite a good beach where there were some water sport activities going on. As we approached the beach, agents fell upon us for the water sports from rates like Rs. 300 per head for one ride (Jetskie and Banana boat) and Rs. 1200 for parasailing. After a lots of bargaining (good job Bond) we showcased that we were students and not affordable to pay such hefty prices, the price lowered to Rs. 500 for 2 rides. We said we would come back tomorrow and play in water.

Next, we headed to another beach, Baga beach, which was a purely commercial one. Tables and hookahs on the shore, people of all ages & all nationalities surrounded the place. We had the popular local fenny, wine and other drinks along with gobi etc, spent that evening enjoing the cool breeze and looking at stars and then returned to our resort. The fenny was strong. I was in my own world.